Artist brings waterfalls to New York

When the spigots are turned on Thursday, four mammoth waterfalls will spring into existence off Manhattan’s East Side. The free-standing cataracts roaring down into the East River and New York Harbor are a multimillion-dollar engineering feat designed by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson.

“The New York City Waterfalls” is the city’s largest public art project since 2005, when artists Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, adorned 23 miles of Central Park’s paths with thousands of saffron drapes. The artificial cascades will be up through Oct. 13.

“Here in New York, water is everywhere. We take the water for granted,” Eliasson said in an interview. “I want to suggest -- now, it’s not about the land, now it’s about what’s between the land.”

Metal scaffolds will provide the framework for each waterfall. Pumps will carry water up to a trough, where it will be released in a frothy cascade -- about 35,000 gallons every minute for all four falls. The falls will be on every day from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. They will be illuminated after sunset.